


Castiel's Dilemma

by 420Papyrus



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adorable, Cats, Destiel - Freeform, Fluff, Kitty - Freeform, M/M, Sweetness, cas got hurt, cuteness, dean and cas - Freeform, morph - Freeform, sammy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 03:18:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8649508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/420Papyrus/pseuds/420Papyrus
Summary: After getting hurt on a hunt, Cas is transferred to a new vessel. In his new furry form, he must accompany the Winchesters on their new adventure and hope Gabe can fix up his other form before it's too late.





	1. The Purr-fect Form

Cas gasped sharply, and for a split second felt the metal of the pole as it ran through him. He watched as the demon who sent the pole through him smile down at him before turning around and disappear. He only felt the pain a moment before his world faded, and he felt like he was numb as he fell into whatever abyss had taken him. 

When he awoke, he saw his brother Gabriel gazing at him, the rare shine of worry in his eyes as he looked him over. He reached out and Cas felt his hand on his head for a moment.

“Okay,” Gabe sighed, seeming relieved but also a bit irritated,”I think the transfer was successful,”

Cas tipped his head, confused, and opened his mouth to speak. What came out, however, was a rather endearing ‘meow’. He looked up at Gabe in a panic, trying again, and once more, to the same effect. He couldn’t speak at all!

“Settle down,” Gabe chided him, lifting him up,”I’ll explain,”

Cas looked down, where Gabe’s hands held him and to the rest of him. He was most definitely not in his own form. He saw, instead of his usual trench coat and slacks, two small, black furry legs and another two little, white paws. A tail that had a patch of white at the tip, swung from behind him as Gabe moved him about. 

Gabe set him down on the floor, in front of a full-length mirror. Cas hurried to it, hoping up on his little legs and leaning against it as he looked at his own reflection. His fur was ruffled and black, and his eyes were a bright blue. His mouth looked like he’d gotten sloppy while drinking milk and was a pure white color, like on his front paws and his back feet. 

He howled again, unsure of what to do or what had happened. He looked back at Gabe miserably, who shook his head.

“I’m sorry, kid, you’ll have to live with it,” He turned to walk away, and Cas- while still unsteady and unbalanced- hurried after him,”You hurt yourself pretty bad this time, your human form needs to rest and heal, and I have to fix your grace,” 

Cas felt his stomach somersault as he heard that, and he meowed again- What’s wrong with it?

Gabriel glanced at him,”I’ll get it fixed, Cas. Just take care of yourself until then. Dean will know what to do with you,”

Cas tipped his head again and mewled softly- What does Dean Winchester have to do with any of this?

And Gabe turned away again, raising his fingers as he snapped them. Cas saw the darkness again, and then he was in the cold. Rain fell on his back and head, heavy and soaking. He was in front of a little motel, and he was not at all happy with the cold of the evening. He howled again unhappily, and hurried forward to the shade of the little porch the motel offered. He shook off as best he could, feeling rather glum about his new situation.

He still felt rather frigid as he walked along the grey cement ‘porch’. He didn’t even know which room was Dean’s- how was he supposed to find it? He walked past each of them, giving a quiet little meow as he passed, unsure who might open their door. Feeling hopeless, he found a little corner between one of the pillars and the wall and curled himself up. 

It was about an hour or so- though Cas would swear it had been at least two or three- when a familiar black Impala pulled up with a satisfying rumble. The engine cut and two doors opened with a high creak which Cas flinched back from. Dean stepped out with a chuckle, holding a box of take out in his hand- Sam had a beige bag over one shoulder and a black one held in his other.

“See, there’s your problem Sammy,” Dean said matter-of-factly,”You don’t know good food,”

“Dean there’s been people who had bugs in their food. I’m not just making it up,” Sam argued, but it was more amused than angry.

Cas got to his feet, a loud cry reaching the boy’s ears. He mewled a time or two, desperate for them to see him. He stumbled a little, as he had just woken up and was still rather unbalanced with this form.

Dean’s nose scrunched up at the sight,”Christ- the thing looks diseased,”

Sam scowled at him, placing his bags on the ground to kneel down and pick Cas up. He held the kitten close to his chest, rubbing the wet fur to help bring heat back to the small thing. ”He’s freezing, Dean. He must have gotten caught in the rain,”

Case meowed while pushing against Sam's chest to get closer to the heat- I did, please take me inside now.

Dean waved a hand,”He probably just lost his little group- let him be,” He picked up the bags Sam had left, putting them all on one shoulder so he could clumsily pull out a key. It took him a few minutes to work the key into the lock, he opened the door and threw Sam's two bags in.

“Dean-” Sam began, tucking Cas into his jacket, careful not to pull the kitten’s tail.

“Sam,” Dean cut him off as he glanced back at him, frowning at the cat, who had his head poking out of his jacket. The he frowned at his brother- he was stubborn, if nothing else.

Sam frowned right back, determined,”It’s my room too. We won’t even know he’s there, come on,”

Dean took a breath, his hand on the doorknob of their room. He shook his head and pushed it open before going inside,”Fine! But you keep him in your bed. I don't need to have cat hair all over my bed because you have a bleeding heart for lost animals. “

Sam chuckled a bit and followed him inside, still holding Cas to his chest to keep him warm,”You have to admit- he’s kinda cute,”

Dean mumbled something but didn’t otherwise reply. 

Cas shifted in Sam's coat for a minute before he could clearly see the room the Winchesters were staying in. As Cas expected, it was a run down motel room that had god-knows-what happened inside that the management just threw cheesy red carpeting over it. He watched as Dean fell into one if the beds that came with the room while Sam headed straight to the bathroom. 

He winced once Sam flicked the lights on, flooding his vision with bright white, he felt himself being shifted and picked up while he was temporarily blinded. His vision cleared and he saw that he was now on top of the brown stained sink, while Sam was across the bathroom, shuffling in a cabinet for something. The tile under his paws felt cold and he hated it, he started to curl in on himself, his tail coming around him defensively. He mewled as he started to shiver again, the warmth from Sam's chest was rapidly fading and his sopping wet fur wasn't helping him in the least.

He watched as Sam came back from across the bathed with a pure white towel and a apologetic smile on his face. “I'm sorry, come here I'll get you dried up,” he said as he started to wrap Cas up in the towel. 

He relished the feeling of the soft cloth rubbing his fur dry, he felt the towel come around his entire body before Sam had picked him up to completely swaddle him in the towel. The man held Cas in one hand while he turned.off the lights to the bathroom before carrying the kitten in both hands to walk into the main room.  
He watched from chest height as he was carried from the bathroom to one of the beds in the main room where Sam sat down and proceed again with rubbing him. Cas’s ears perked up when he heard unfamiliar voices in the room, when he glanced up he found Dean in the bed next to Sam's, staring at a box which had voices coming out of it. He vaguely remembers Dean calling it a ‘TV’ but doesn't recall the finer details about it.

He looks back at Dean, the man is hunched over, food in one hand and a remote in the other, pressing buttons on the remote as he takes a large bite from the burger. Cas felt a sharp pain in his stomach and it sent fear through him as he's never felt that before unless he was stabbed. It took a few minutes for his mind to realize that when his brother said he had to fix his Grace, that meant his brother has his Grace. Which also meant Cas now had to deal with human issues like hunger or dehydration, he would have sighed but that came out as a small mewl instead.

Dean glanced away from the the TV and down at the kitten wrapped up in a white towel in his brother’s lap, he saw that the small thing was staring hungrily at the burger in his hand. He looked between his burger and the kitten, contemplating between his morals and his hunger. He glanced at the Tv once more, catching up a bit. He looked down and tore off a little chunk of the burger, offering it to the kitten.

Cas stretched from his cocoon of blankets to take it, gently he nibbled at it before taking the entire chunk from Dean's hand. Sam snickered above him. Cas purred quietly, snuggling back down into the warm towel Sam held him in. He gazed at Dean, then the burger with a bit of desire, wanting the pains in his stomach to leave. Dean sighed, and set the last three or so bites of the burger on the bed for the cat. Before Sam could unwrap him and set him down, Cas wiggled and squirmed his way out and clambered over to it, hurriedly scarfing the last bit of the burger down. 

He glanced back at the brothers to see Sam smiling at Dean while the older brother was in the middle of throwing a play punch at Sam. 

“So, you do have a heart, huh?” Sam asked playfully as he shoved Dean away, causing the other to scoff.

“The cat was staring at me and it looked really skinny, besides you couldn't feed it with your rabbit food.” Dean countered as he tried to defend himself, getting up from the floor while throwing the empty take our bag across the room in the direction of the trash can. He brushed his hands on his jeans before turning back to his brother, “We came for a case and now we got a kitten to care of, this is great.”

Sam chuckled again, he leaned over and took the kitten by the scruff of the neck and pulled it towards him. He held the kitten up to his face, “Yeah, we can't let him go back out because he doesn't look more than a few weeks old, he won’t last outside on his own.”

“So, what? We don't stay in a place for more than a week, we can't take care of a kitten.” Dean said, and his tone was a bit bitter as he stood from the bed to get something to drink from the mini fridge across the room.

Sam frowned, setting the kitten down on the mattress again and using to fingers to scratch behind his ears. Cas leaned into the touch, beginning to wonder if life as a cat may really be so awful.

“I’m not hearing any arguments,”Dean pointed out, raising an eyebrow at his brother as he popped open a beer and took a swig from the bottle.

Sam shook his head when Dean held one up to him as an offer,”Well, you’re not wrong. I just don’t feel right leaving him out like this. Especially when we can, if we really wanted to, take care of the guy,” He said as he pulled out the best puppy dog eyes he could at his brother- He really would feel bad if he let this kitten out and find it out in the middle of the road, crushed by a car; or worse yet, still half alive in an alley where the poor guy found the wrong pack of dogs.

Sam shuddered at the idea of it, but quickly looked back to Dean, who headed back to the bed to sit down,”Sam, you’ve never had a cat in your life, neither have I. We've had dogs and it's nothing like that, we just can't take care of it.”

Dean looked at his brother and found his puppy eyes staring right back at him while the kitten was rubbing it's head against his brother's hand. That's when he noticed how skinny the little thing was, not to mention when it opened it's eyes the bright blue that looked back was scarily familiar. The little thing’s paw shifted and it tipped it’s head against the fabric of Sammy’s coat, looking sleepy. Dean still wondered about his eyes, and felt a bit unsettled as they closed again. Looking back at Sam, he shook his head, raising his hands in a surrender.

“Fine!” He sighed,”Keep the damn cat,” he got up from the bed for the umpteenth today so he wouldn't see his brother's triumphant little dance that he usually did when he’d won Dean over.

Dean sighed as he took another swig from his beer before pointing at his brother, “You gotta go and get whatever it needs, and clean out the car of cat hair.”


	2. This Cage is a Claw-tastrophe

“What the hell! How did I get stuck with whiskers?” Dean asked himself as he was looking between colorful bags, full of different kinds of kitten kibble that made no sense in his mind. 

He ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he looked down at the small kitten pawing at the edges of the cardboard cage him and Sam had to put it in, “What about you, Whiskers? What kind of kibble do you want?” He asked sarcastically. 

Cas meowed unhappily in response, Dean, my name is not Whiskers, and I do not like this cage. 

Cas's ears flattened when Dean just chuckled down at him and went back to the bags of kitten kibble. So far none of the brothers could understand him, his words would just come out as useless meows. That, to Sam and Dean, meant absolutely nothing, which was frustrating beyond belief for Castiel. So, he just kept pawing at the edges of the cage in an attempt to claw his way out.

He felt the cart bounce up and down from Dean throwing in a random bag of kibble with a grunt. He muttered something about this being ridiculous, then pushing the cart while leaning on it with a sour look on his face. He had been like this for the past hour, he had gotten that look when Sam had insisted that they leave the motel immediately to go get cat stuff. He whined as Sam held Cas in the car while they drove to the nearest PetCo, only to then hand Dean Cas while he went off to schedule a vet appointment for the kitten.

Dean stopped at a section of cat treats, holding the little cage with an equally small kitten inside out to the selection, still scowling rather sourly. He narrowed his eyes at the cat.

“I can’t believe this,” He mumbled, and Cas stood up on his back legs, leaning against the wall of the cage with his paws and meowing loudly.

Cas poked his nose out of a hole on the side, mewling again- Please let me out of here. It smells of shoes and old fries.

Dean chuckled, raising his finger to touch the soft skin of the kitten’s nose. The kitten recoiled back into the box, replacing his nose with a paw, which fished around for what had touched him. Dean pat the back of the white paw with the pad of his finger, and the kitten meowed again. The paw turned a bit, then stilled. Dean ran his finger over the back again, and it remained still. Dean stroked the soft fur of his paw before setting the cage back onto the cart and throwing random cat treats into the cart with the cage. 

He was going to move to another section when he heard thudding footsteps coming towards him, and he's lived his brother enough to know those footsteps. He turned to Sam jogging up to him with a big smile across his face. “You know you could have walked, we're like ten feet away from each other.”

Sam scoffed at his brother before walking around and looking inside the cart. He raised an eyebrow at the mountain of different and random cat stuff his brother threw into the cart, “We have a single kitten, not an army of cats, Dean. We don't need that much stuff,” Sam said as he shifted through some of the bags in the cart. 

His brother just shrugged in return, “I don't know what a cat needs, so I thought we'd just get anything that sounds like what the thing needs.”

Sam took out a bag of animal diapers from the cart, “There is no way we need these- Christ, Dean just give me the cart,”

Dean lifted his hands and stepped away, looking annoyed but he was willing to play along. Sam put a lot of stuff back, and kept a few toys as well as a bag of treats and food. He pulled two small dishes off the counter, decorated with tiny wings against a blue background.

“We’ll have to show this to Cas next time he comes around,” Sam chuckled, and Dean grinned at him.

Cas, meanwhile, scratched at the cardboard hurriedly and howled- Yes! Show me, I’m here!

Sam frowned, setting the bowls into the cart and grabbing a few other things, assuming the thing was just getting a little stir crazy. When he was satisfied that they had enough, he went up to the check out. He started to place various items onto the belt once he pulled up enough to reach it, “You think the cat will be fine if we left it at the hotel for a bit?” He asked.

Dean lifted an eyebrow as he tossed stuff from his side to the belt as he answered, “It's a cat, Sam, I think it can handle itself.” 

He earned a slap from his brother as one if the items he was tossing clipped his arm. Sam huffed as he put the rest of the items on the belt and pushed the cart forward until it was near the bag rack. He glanced up and saw the cashier smiling at Dean and him, he gave her back a polite smile and a nod.

“Your first cat?” She asked as she was scanning the items they had put up there. Her smile was polite but you could tell she held sympathy for the two men in front of her. “Cats are always the best for first pets, it's easy on couples because they're so easy-” she trailed off as she watched as Sam and Dean wilt in front of her. 

“Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you two were a couple”, the employee backtracked, noticing the men flitch even harder when she was trying to apologize.

Cas watched from his prison of a box, his head tilting to the side as he watched Dean cringe with the employee talking. He knew what a couple meant, from one of Dean's ‘Modern Times Lessons’, but he couldn't find a way to connect that to Sam and Dean. A couple is two people in a relationship, an intimate one at that, while Sam and Dean were close Castiel couldn't see them in a relationship like that. 

His ears flattened when the thought of Sam and Dean doing things like holding hands or kissing for the matter. He pushed the image of incest out of his mind and went back to the corner where he tried to get out by clawing at the cardboard. The brown material was shredded up, long scratches ran down the board and a pile of cardboard shavings sat below if. But Cas got nowhere with it do to the multiple layers of material it was made with. He was about to start again when the cart started moving again, causing him so lose balance suddenly and fall to his side.

He meowed as the cart experience a lot of bumps before stopping in the middle of nowhere. He got up and peeked through one of the air holes of the cage and saw the sleek black metal of the trunk of the impala, creaking as Dean threw it open.

“I can't believe we just dropped almost sixty bucks on a cat,” Dean mumbled grumpily.

Sam rolled his eyes,”Oh, get off it. It's not that bad,” 

Dean just scoffed at his brother as he threw whatever they got into the trunk, where it thunked hollowly at the false bottom. He picked up the cardboard cage as he pushed the empty cart into a caral haphazardly. He held the cage up to his face, “You better be worth it.” He said to the small kitten inside, which he received a swipe at nose as an answer.

Dean, do not threaten me, Cas meowed as he pulled paw back into the cage, his tail swinging back and forth from agitation. He heard the man chuckle as he walked back to the impala where be put Cas in the back seat. He felt the car sway from Sam and Dean getting in, he heard the key going into the ignition, and the rumble of the engine. His hearing was so sensitive that he could hear the clicks of the tiniest parts of the engine; even the soft clanks of knives and guns in the trunk.

He flicked his ears before getting up and going to the mangled corner and started working on it again with determination and the want of not being inside a cage. He listened to the brothers conversation as his claws worked at the cardboard.

“Did you find out anything on this case?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, uh..” Sam trialed off as he went into the glove compartment, shuffling in the pile of papers that were shoved inside before pulling out a few crumpled a piece of paper. “I did a little research as we were driving up here. ” He said as he closed the glove compartment with a loud click. 

He continued, “The vic was a twenty-six year Sophia Verdan, found dead in her apartment this morning. Looked like she hanged herself, snapped neck, rope burns, the whole deal.”

“So?” Dean asked as he flicked on his blinkers, slowly merging into another land before flicking them off.

“Her body was found on the ground, and when the police checked her apartment, they found no rope, nothing that shows that she could hang herself.” Sam said as he flipped through the pages he had in his hands, “There are two other reports like this, same wounds, same town, no evidence of them hanging themselves, and all within the same month.”

Dean glanced over at his brother before going back to the road, “Sounds like a ghost to me”

Sam nodded as he threw the papers up onto the dashboard before laying back, “That's what I'm thinkin- Ow!”

He felt a set of claws dig into his shoulder from behind his seat, then another join right next to the first pair. Sam glanced behind him and saw a furry head pop up over the paws and meow at him. “Ow, ow, ow, stop that!” Sam said as he reached around and picked up the kitten attached to his shoulder.

Cas mewled as Sam set him down on his lap, much more comfortable lying down on something warm rather than the stiff cardboard that they found god knows where.

“How the hell,” Sam mumbled, twisting in his seat to look back at the torn up cage, now with a hole just big enough for the kitten, ”Wow,”

Dean glanced back too and whistled at the damage done to the cage, “I didn't even hear him clawing at it.”

Cas meowed at the brothers, Do not put me in a cage, I despise it. But he just got a chuckle from Dean who scratched between his ears before going back to the road. 

Cas sat in Sam's lap the entire ride, curling his tail around himself as he listened to the brothers conversation idly. He would have been more interested if he was human, but in his state as a cat he wouldn't be very helpful. He laid his head on his paws, he was about to sleep when he suddenly heard his name. 

His head shot up, hopeful that they figured out it was him, but it was quickly shot down as he listened in.

“Have you heard anything on Cas?” Sam asked as he absentmindedly pet the kitten in his lap.

Dean sighed as he slowed to a stop at an intersection, “Not a single peep, haven't heard anything for the past few months. I just hope the poor guy hasn't killed over,”

It was a joke, but Sam and Cas knew the underlying worry that laced his words.

Sam just nodded while Cas put his head back down onto his paws. Cas wasn't dead but according to Gabriel, he was close enough that he had to be put into another vessel. I was Cas's fault, he never really figured out how to use the phone that Dean had given him, so after a while he just ignored it. In hindsight, it may not have been the best idea.

“I'm sure he's okay,” Sam hummed quietly,”He'll pop up somewhere, he always does.”

Dean nodded but didn't say anything after that, choosing to stay silent through the rest of the car ride. Sam simply leaned over and flicked on the radio which still had a cassette in it. The car filled with quiet rock music as the midday rain pattered against the impala as it sped towards the motel.


End file.
